The present disclosure relates to continuous feed printers, and more particularly, to a compact label or thermal printer having an articulating print frame assembly having a lockout link and a swinging ribbon guide. The disclosed printer also includes a fixed or adjustable media sensor, and is configurable to accommodate an internal supply of web (roll) media or an external supply of fanfold media.
Compact or desktop printers are often used in commercial settings, e.g., in warehouses, in industrial and manufacturing environments, by shipping services, in restaurants, in the vending and gaming industries, and in other establishments for ticket printing, asset tracking, and inventory control. Ideally, compact printers weigh only a few pounds and are small enough to be readily provisioned in a work environment without significant site preparation. Such a printer may be operatively associated with an internal or external power supply that converts line voltage to the operating voltage(s) required by the printer. The printer may additionally or alternatively include a power source, such as a disposable or rechargeable battery, and may additionally communicate with a host terminal or network connection via a wired or wireless interface, such as an RS-232, Ethernet, USB, WiFi, or optical interface.
A compact printer may utilize sheet-fed media, or, more popularly, continuous-feed media, e.g., rolls of paper, labels, tags, and the like. Compact printers commonly employ direct thermal transfer techniques, whereby thermochromic media passes over a thermal print head which selectively heats areas of the media to create a visible image. Also popular are thermal transfer printers which employ a heat-sensitive ribbon to transfer images to media.
A continuous feed printer is particularly suitable for printing onto stock material which may include, but is not necessarily limited to, labels, receipts, item labels, shelf labels/tags, ticket stubs, stickers, hang tags, price stickers, and the like. Such media may be provided in web or roll configuration, or alternatively may be provided in a fanfold configuration, whereby individual media units (e.g., sheets or tags) are joined at the corresponding edges thereof and stacked in a zigzag manner.
In the case of continuous roll media, the media may be wound around a generally tubular core which supports the roll media. The core may have a standard size, or arbitrarily-sized inner diameter. Roll media is available in a wide range of widths.
The adjacent edges of contiguous fanfold media units may include scoring or perforations to facilitate stacking and/or separation of the individual media units. Fanfold media may also be provided in a wide variety of widths.
Label printers may incorporate a media supply of self-adhesive labels adhered to a coated substrate wound in a rolled configuration. Alternatively, a media supply may include a plain paper roll suitable for ink-based, toner-based, direct thermal-based, or thermal transfer-based printing. During use, media may be drawn against a printing head, which, in turn, causes images to be created on the media stock by, e.g., impact printing (dot matrix, belt printing), by localized heating of thermochromic media (direct thermal printing), by transferring temperature-sensitive ink from a ribbon to the print media (thermal transfer printing), inkjet printing, toner-based printing, or other suitable printing methods.
Compact or thermal printers may be designed for use with one type of printing media or one particular size of print media, e.g., 2-inch label stock or 3-inch label stock. Other compact printers may be configurable to accommodate different media types and sizes. Such printers may include a media centering mechanism which is designed to accommodate roll media of varying widths and/or core diameters. The media centering mechanism may include opposing support members configured to engage the media roll core. A media centering mechanism typically includes first and second support members that are generally biased towards each other to secure the media roll. Movement of the first and second support members may be synchronized by one or more gears or belts such that, when a support member is moved a distance from the centerline of the media roll, the other support member moves a corresponding distance in the opposing direction from the centerline of the media roll.
A compact printer that readily accommodates many different media types and sizes, provides improved reliability and performance, and enables facile operation and reconfiguration by a casual user, would be a welcome advance in the state of the art.